As any telescope aficionado will tell you, the virtue of refractors lies in their pristine image quality. The problem has always been the price: refractors cost more per inch of aperture than any other telescope design. That's still true, but steady advances in precision lens manufacturing technology are bringing those prices down.

Down to below $350, in the case of our remarkable Orion AstroView 90 Equatorial Refractor Telescope. And without compromising the quality of the equatorial mount or standard accessories, we might add. This is a soundly constructed, great performing telescope that any new backyard astronomer will appreciate from the first night out.

A Revealing Night OutWhen we took the AstroView out for an evening spin recently, we first targeted Jupiter. Cloud banding starkly visible, as were all four of its major moons. Then, the crescent Moon. With the 10mm telescope eyepiece (91x power), the rugged relief and shadow play along the terminator were transfixing. On to the Orion Nebula, where at 36x the four Trapezium stars appeared as perfect blue pinpoints surrounded by a pretty patch of greenish gas. We then powered up to 91x, and — Wow! — the nebula seemed to sprout wings, which spanned nearly the entire field of view! An occasional tweak of the equatorial mount's R.A. slow-motion cable kept the glow centered in the telescope eyepiece. Next, the Beehive Star Cluster (M44) in Cancer. A dazzling splash of bright speckles filled the field at 36x. And so the evening went. The multi-coated 90mm achromatic objective lens (910mm focal length, f/10) served up surprisingly high-contrast images — despite our being awash in neighborhood porch and street lights.